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Women work without a break for their families, society, and friends all through the year. So, on IWD 2016, LEAD conducted their 3rd annual "Recognizing the Unrecognized", where women in our society who are rarely recognized but are responsible for important work were recognized for their contributions, such as cleaning railway stations, bus stands, picking household trash, selling vegetables etc. LEAD and LEADers believe that, without these women, our communities would come to a standstill.

The youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow. To that purpose, the LEaders Accelerating Development (LEAD) Program of the Deshpande Foundation was born. LEAD develops innovative and entrepreneurial thinking within college students by exposing them to social issues, encouraging them to volunteer their time and effort into the community, and igniting their latent talent to come up with creative solutions. Through this unique platform provided by LEAD, students are gaining the skills and confidence needed to transform their visions into realities. Armed with guidance, exposure, networking opportunities, financial assistance, and encouragement from LEAD, students from throughout 75 colleges and 14 districts are unleashing their leadership potential to go on inspiring and improving those around them.

The 6th Yuva Summit, an international youth conference on leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship hosted by the Leaders Accelerating Development program, began in Hubballi on 6th February with Mr. Ravindranath Gumaste, Managing Director of Kirloskar Ferrous Industries Ltd., cutting the ceremonial ribbon that let the hundreds of attendees, including students, faculty, entrepreneurs, and honoured guests, into the event grounds.

On 24th January, 107 promising students from across Karnataka and neighbouring states descended upon the VTU campus in Belagavi to mark the kick-off of the 5th annual LEAD Prayana. These students, along with 32 beginning their journey on the same day in Nizamabad, were selected from a pool of almost 500 applicants. LEAD Prayana, which began in 2012 with just 63 students, is an annual leadership journey that takes almost 150 passionate students between the ages of 18-26 throughout India on a 14-day tour across Karnataka...

I am passionate about science, especially physics. My affair with Science started during my childhood and it deepened in my high school when I started participating in Science exhibitions with my models. During Pre University Education, I built the Levitation Train with few of my friends and grabbed prizes at several competitions. “Physics of the Impossible” by Michio Kaku was a book that exposed me further to the vastness of the science and motivated me to start a science group called “Blackbody Science Group (Which Absorbs All Wavelength of Intuitive Minds)”. This group engages in creating interest about science among government and physically disabled school children.

From November 6th to November 8th, students from one of LEAD's newest locations in Nizamabad journeyed to Hubli to explore more about Deshpande Foundation, LEAD, as well as themselves.

Day 1:
The Nizamabad students arrived in Hubli on November 6th
at 11.30 AM. After going on a tour of the Deshpande Foundation, the students engaged in a creativity session with Aditi Kowshik (Teaching Faculty, Deshpande Foundation). Following the creativity session, the students interacted with Naveen Jha(CEO, Deshpande Foundation), during which Naveen enthused the students by making them explore their potential as youth. The LEAD Nizamabad students were then given the opportunity to interact with all of the fellows of the Deshpande Foundation Fellowship Programs, Masters of Social Entrepreneurship students (MSE) and active LEAD students from the Hubli region.

Day 2:
The Nizamabad students started their day bright and early at 6AM. As an energizer activity, the students were given the task to interact with each other in order to understand each other better. The group then visited Akshaya Patra and had an interactive session with Akshaya Patra staff member, Mr. Rajesh. After touring Akshaya Patra, the students visited Agastya Foundation and explored the science models. In the afternoon, the students attended an IT session held by Appaji Rao, Krishnaji, and Aarya. After all of their site visits and interactions, the LEAD Nizamabad students to start taking action to solve local problems. On the evening of November 7th, the LEAD Nizamabad students collaborated with the MSE students the 50 students conducted a candle light march to create awareness for women harassment. Starting at the Deshpande Foundation, the group marched to KIMS Hospital and performed skits to attract the local public and to give their rally more impact.

Day 3:

The LEAD Nizamabad students started their day again at 6AM with some energizer activities. They then attended a session on time management and leadership conducted by Neeta (Program Manager, Deshpande Fellowship Program) and Annie Vijaya (HR Manager, Deshpande Foundation). Afterwards, the students attended sessions with Ajay Suman Shukla (Functional Head, LEAD) and Naveen Jha. The students were very curious and asked many questions regarding leadership and entrepreneurship. The students ended their evening with yet another community activity, in which they collaborated with Koutilya Fellows. With the slogan, "Be Indian, buy Indian" in mind, the students rallied to create awareness for desi products.